Airlines Try Signature Fragrances, but Not Everyone Is On Board

Carriers Try Fragrances, but Some Passengers Aren’t On Board

A scent diffusion machine installed in the lobby of a United Airlines club at O'Hare Airport gently wafts a fragrance of orange peel, sandalwood, cedar and leather, part of a move to create a signature airline aroma to charm passengers.
Photo:
Susan Carey/The Wall Street Journal

Beyoncé’s latest perfume is called Rise, “the scent of empowerment.” Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams and Jennifer Aniston have signature scents, too. So does
Delta Air Lines.

Delta’s offering is Calm, an eau d’aeroport that it sprays in airplane cabins and infuses in the hot towels it gives out in premium classes. It has been spreading Calm for about two years, joining a handful of other carriers vying for olfactory distinction by developing their own individualized odors. The fragrant fliers include
United Continental Holdings,Turkish Airlines
and Air Canada’s low-cost rouge operation. Spain’s Iberia is close to launching its own aroma, and Alaska Airlines is working on one.

Scent diffuser

The companies don’t plan to bottle their scents for retail, but they do see a commercial value in them. United marketing manager Mark Krolick says its new fragrance, provisionally called “Landing,” in concert with improvements like new lighting and redesigned gates, “will create a more relaxing environment. A good experience engenders brand preference, which probably will result in more booking,” he says. Airlines also say they aim for subtlety, so passengers who are sensitive to scents won’t recoil.

Then, there are more practical considerations. “We were trying to improve the smell of our lavatories, to be honest,” says Mike Henny, Delta’s director of customer experience. The airline had a vendor of lavatory amenities suggest some scents, and employees chose Calm, a lavender-and-chamomile mixture, which also is diffused when passengers use the lavatory soap dispensers.

Given the grind that air travel has become for millions of people, with ever smaller seats and endless new fees, the moves by airlines could be likened to putting perfume on a flying pig. But a bigger problem might be getting customers to notice.

Phil Nickinson, a Pensacola, Fla., website editor who flew 75,000 miles on Delta in 2014, says he hasn’t noticed a thing, even though “I have a wife and a daughter, and I’m good at smelling sweet things.” He gives Delta credit for trying something small to make travel nicer, “even though they’re packing us in like sardines. But me, as a guy, I don’t base my conscious buying decisions on smell.” Mr. Henny said the airline wants its customers to be “as comfortable on board as possible, and have a positive association with their experience on Delta.”

Fragrances increasingly have been in vogue among hotels and retail chains in recent years. Studies have shown that the sense of smell is closely linked to the brain’s limbic system, which is responsible for emotion, memory and motivation. Proponents say a scent can elevate shoppers’ impressions of a store and cause them to stay longer and spend more money. A scent also can conjure up positive memories of being in a Ritz-Carlton lobby, thus helping to increase bookings.

Rachel Herz, a Brown University experimental psychologist and author of “The Scent of Desire,” says there isn’t a lot of research on aviation aroma. The airline rationale—calming people down is a little uncertain, she says. “You could introduce a scent to elevate my mood and possibly distract me from all the hassles I’m going through,” she says. “But I don’t think it’s going to make people feel in control, because the scent is being imposed on them.”

Indeed, flying fragrances risk a backlash from people with asthma and allergies, also, sufferers of what is known as multiple chemical sensitivity, says Aileen Gagney, an environmental program manager at the American Lung Association in Seattle. Ms. Gagney says she gets migraines and has breathing problems if subjected to someone else’s perfume, lotion, or hair spray. “I can’t even imagine a signature scent in an airport,” she says. “I’d put a cloth over my face.”

Airlines say they are proceeding cautiously and eliciting passenger feedback. “We’re not going to lay it on thick,” says Halle Hutchison, Alaska’s director of brand and marketing, of her airline’s testing. “We’re not selling clothes or a lifestyle here.” Putting atomized diffusion machines on aircraft seems to be a no-fly zone, carriers say, because it raises licensing and inspection issues with safety regulators.

And some carriers have shelved their perfume plans. Qantas Airways had a scent in some of its airport lounges but snuffed it out in favor of the food smells generated by its chefs whipping up fresh meals in the clubs. British Airways entertained the notion, and then thought better of it.

Still other carriers say it’s just what they need. Turkish Airlines in 2013 came out with “TK 1933,” a nod to its airline code and the year it was founded. The scent, whose 29 ingredients include lemon grass, ylang-ylang oil and bergamot, was created by a Turkish fragrance house. The airline says quantitative research showed TK 1933 produced feelings of “trust, peace, happiness, serenity and pleasure.”

Fatma Yuceler, Turkish Airlines’ general manager in Los Angeles, says the idea isn’t to entice passengers to buy more tickets. “Turkish Airlines is really aiming to be a big brand, but all the big brands have a perfume,” she says. “The point was to address all of the five senses in a brand. We were missing smell.”

Singapore Airlines was a pioneer of jet scent. It started spraying its signature “Stefan Floridian Waters,” a mélange of rose, lavender and citrus, on its hot towels more than 30 years ago. The company recently tried applications of the same perfume in a Singapore ticket office. But it didn’t proceed, worried that a terrestrial scent machine might not be able to replicate the onboard experience, a spokesman said.

Michael Gore, managing director of an engine business near Manchester, England, and a Singapore elite flier, says he’s a fan. “If I was blindfolded, I’d instantly know it’s SQ,” he says, using the airline’s code. But can he describe the aroma? “I honestly can’t tell you what it is,” he says.

Rune Raunow, a Danish IT sales director and Turkish Airlines frequent flier, says he can recognize that airline’s aroma, particularly in its lounges, and likes the whole “multisensory idea.” But he, too, says it’s hard to say what it smells like, and would “never, never pick an airline based on the scents.”

United is just beginning to introduce its fragrance, a medley of orange peel, sandalwood, cedar and leather, developed by a Charlotte, N.C. scent marketing firm called ScentAir. Landing has landed at a few locations at United’s O’Hare Airport hub in Chicago, including airplane boarding bridges. On a recent morning, a diffuser machine had just been installed on the wall near a potted plant in the lobby of one of its four United Club lounges. Marlene Tolbert, a supervisor in the club, says she thought it was “a pine smell for the holidays.” But her colleague Linda Chrobak disagreed. “I can smell the orange,” she says.

Jim Curry, a Chicago police officer walking his beat in the terminal, popped in to greet the women. “I like it,” he says of the scent. “It’s not bold. You’re not walking into a lemon tree. When you have lemon, you know they’re trying to hide something.”